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Press Release

AMERICAN RUSSIAN
YOUNG ARTISTS
ORCHESTRA OPENS
AMERICAN TOUR WITH
SPECIAL CONCERT AT
BARD COLLEGE ON
MONDAY, JUNE 14, AT 7
P.M.

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.-The American Russian Young Artists Orchestra (ARYO) Chamber
Ensemble begins its world tour Monday, June 14, at 7:00 p.m. with a special performance
at Bard College. The concert, presented by The Bard Center, is free and open to the
public and will be held in the air-conditioned Olin Hall.

The American Russian Young Artists Orchestra was founded in 1987. From its inception,
the First Ladies of Russia and the United States have served as its honorary
chairwomen, and in 1993 Hillary Rodham Clinton and Naina Yeltsin assumed that role.
ARYO operates under the leadership of Music Director Leon Botstein, president of Bard
College, and a prestigious Board of Directors chaired by Henry Luce III, chairman and
CEO of The Henry Luce Foundation. Over the years its conductors have included Valery
Gergiev, Dmitri Kitayenko, Zubin Mehta, Leonard Slatkin, and Hugh Wolff.

Since 1988 ARYO has evolved from producing one summer tour a year to a full-fledged
year-round operation that includes chamber tours, residencies, and extensive community
outreach programs in leading venues around the globe. A highlight of ARYO's recent past
was the 1998 Moscow Youth Olympics. The ARYO Chamber Orchestra participated in the
World Youth Music Forum '98 at the invitation of the Russian Ministry of Culture and
Moscow Mayor Yuri M. Luzhkov. There ARYO joined nine other youth orchestras
representing every continent to form a one thousand-member Orchestra of the World,
which presented a concert in Red Square under the baton of Valery Gergiev.

ARYO alumni are taking their places in the great orchestras of the United States and
Russia, including the New World, Boston and Chicago Symphonies, Washington Opera, Los
Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, the Hong Kong, Saint Petersburg and Ural
Philharmonics, Novosibirsk Symphony, Bolshoi Orchestra, Kirov Orchestra, and the White
House Marine Corps Band. ARYO's alumni roster includes the recently named concertmaster
of the Israel Philharmonic, Ilya Konovalov, and principal oboist of the Washington
Opera, Igor Leschishin.

World Tour 1999: Millennium Muzika will take ARYO to twelve cities across the United
States, Russia, and Central Europe from June 14 through July 8, under the batons of
maestros Botstein and Dmitri Liss and guest conductor Valery Gergiev. Concert
highlights will include twentieth-century works by Szymanowski, Duke Ellington,
Stravinsky, Barber, and Rachmaninoff. In St. Petersburg, Russia, ARYO will perform a
joint concert with the Kirov Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Gergiev. The tour
will also feature the world premiere performance of a composition by Nico Muhly, a
seventeen-year-old from Rhode Island; and performances by thirteen-year-old violin
prodigy Mikhail Simonyan of Siberia. Baseball Hall of Fame member Tom Seaver will emcee
ARYO's gala benefit on June 22 at Alice Tully Hall in New York City.

For further information about the concert at Bard College, call 914-758-7413.